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WHO declares flu pandemic

The World Health Organization declared a swine flu
pandemic Thursday -- the first global flu epidemic in 41 years -- as
infections in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America
and elsewhere climbed to nearly 30,000 cases.

The long-awaited pandemic announcement is scientific
confirmation that the new flu virus, also known as H1N1, has emerged and is quickly
circling the globe.

WHO will now ask drugmakers to speed up
production of a swine flu vaccine. The declaration will also prompt
governments to devote more money toward efforts to contain the
virus.

WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan made the announcement Thursday after
the U.N. agency held an emergency meeting with flu experts.

“The virus is now unstoppable.”

WHO Director Margaret Chan

Chan
said she was moving the world to phase 6 -- the agency's highest
alert level -- which means a pandemic, or global epidemic, is under
way.

"The world is moving into the early days of its first influenza
pandemic in the 21st century," Chan told reporters. "The (swine
flu) virus is now unstoppable."

On Wednesday, WHO said 74 countries had reported nearly 27,737
cases of swine flu, including 141 deaths. Chan described the virus
as "moderate." According to WHO's pandemic criteria, a global
outbreak has begun when a new flu virus begins spreading in two
world regions.

The agency has stressed that most cases are mild and require no
treatment, but the fear is that a rash of new infections could
overwhelm hospitals and health authorities -- especially in poorer
countries.

Still, about half of the people who have died from swine flu
were previously young and healthy -- people who are not usually
susceptible to flu. Swine flu is also crowding out regular flu
viruses. Both features are typical of pandemic flu viruses.

Kindergarten studentsMIKE CLARKE/AFP/Getty Images

The last pandemic, the Hong Kong flu of 1968, killed about 1
million people. Ordinary flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people
each year.

Swine flu is also continuing to spread during the start of
summer in the northern hemisphere. Normally, flu viruses disappear
with warm weather, but swine flu is proving to be resilient.

The decision might have been made much earlier if WHO had more
accurate information about swine flu's rising sweep through Europe.

Chan said she called the emergency meeting with flu experts after
concerns were raised that some countries like Britain were not
accurately reporting their cases.

After Thursday's meeting, Chan said the experts agreed there was
wider spread of swine flu than what was being reported.

Chan would not say which country tipped the world into the
pandemic, but said all countries and experts were agreed that it
was time to declare a global outbreak.

WHO said it was now recommending that flu vaccine makers start
making swine flu vaccine. Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC said they
could start large-scale production of pandemic vaccine in July but
that it would take several months before large quantities would be
available.

Pigs are pictured at a farmANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images

Many health experts say WHO's pandemic declaration could have
come weeks earlier but the agency became bogged down by politics.
In May, several countries urged WHO not to declare a pandemic,
fearing it would cause social and economic turmoil.

"This is WHO finally catching up with the facts," said Michael
Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota who has
advised the U.S. government on pandemic preparations.

Despite WHO's hopes, Thursday's announcement will almost
certainly spark panic about spread of swine flu in some countries.

Fear has already gripped Argentina, where thousands of people
worried about swine flu flooded into hospitals this week, bringing
emergency health services in the capital of Buenos Aires to the
brink of collapse.

Last month, a bus arriving in Argentina from
Chile was stoned by people who thought a passenger on it had swine
flu. Chile has the most swine flu cases in South America, just as
the southern hemisphere moves into its winter flu season.

In Hong Kong on Thursday, the government ordered all
kindergartens and primary schools closed for two weeks after a
dozen students tested positive for swine flu - a move that many flu
experts would consider an overreaction. The decision affected over
half a million students.

In the United States, where there have been more than 13,000
cases and at least 27 deaths from swine flu, officials at the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the move would not
change how the U.S. tackled swine flu.

"Our actions in the past month have been as if there was a
pandemic in this country," Glen Nowak, a CDC spokesman, said
Thursday.

The U.S. government has already taken steps like increasing
availability of flu-fighting medicines and authorizing $1 billion
for the development of a new vaccine against the novel virus.

In
addition, new cases seem to be declining in many parts of the
country, U.S. health officials say, as North America moves out of
its traditional flu season.

In Mexico, where the epidemic was first detected, the outbreak
peaked in April. Mexico now has less than 30 cases reported a day,
down from an average of 300, Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova
told The Associated Press. Mexico has confirmed 6,337 cases,
including 108 deaths.

A resurgence is unlikely but Cordova said a second wave of the
virus in November or December could not be ruled out.

Cordova said he is concerned that other countries are not taking
drastic measures to stop its spread like Mexico, which closed
schools, restaurants, theaters, and canceled public events after
the government detected the epidemic in late April.

Many experts said the declaration of a pandemic did not mean the
virus was getting deadlier.

"People might imagine a virus is now going to rush in and kill
everyone," said John Oxford, a professor of virology at St. Bart's
and Royal London Hospital. "That's not going to happen."

But Oxford said the swine flu virus might evolve into a more
dangerous strain in the future.

"That is always a possibility with
influenza viruses," he said. "We have to watch very carefully to
see what this virus does."